Change in attitude....

Not sure why I am writing this post.. By the way, I have no idea why do I write every time. Just to quench that inner thirst I write. Moreover some days end up being so so memorable, either because of some happenings or some thoughts which run through my mind, that I feel desperately to make an attempt to write about them in this blog.

Today is one such day. Some things are really really happening. And yes, it in turn is making me happy. I am happy to say that time is ticking very very fast. This week is one such week, where I not only did I learn some stuffs, but also started applying them.

One such thing is a change in attitude. I know it sounds ridiculous. But yes its true, may be it took close to 6 years of work experience ( including 1 year out of India experience) for me to learn how to change my attitude towards a particular thing.

All these years since I started working, when ever an issue comes up, I was always wondering,
1." what the f^& is this, how much ever we do, we still end up short of target ?? "
2." f%^cking issues will suck the blood out of us.

Somehow, though I love to code, sometimes, I still ended up being unhappy, because of these issues or because of some other reasons, like unawareness or unpreparedness for a new technology.

So I always, (mind you) always ended up cribbing. Sorry to admit this, but its true, I crib a lot. In the last few posts, you can find my cribbology / cribpost. But this week was considerably different. Considering the fact that, I have a clear cut goal of what I need to do, I am a lot more happier and seriously it shows. My goals for the first half of the year 2011 are pretty pretty much clear.

Since I am kind of contented with my decision, happy about my goals for the second half of the year 2011, I am doing things with lot more passion. Or you can put it like, I am happy at workplace.

Its been almost 3 weeks, I am sleeping too much everyday, and I do not regret it. For the first 7 months over here, I used to sleep late, get up early, and there were 4 - 5 occasions when I could not sleep whole night. I would be awake till 4am trying to catch some sleep, then doze off till 7am, get ready and leave to office. But now I sleep around 11pm and wake up at 8am. It does help an extra hour of sleep.

And regarding the change of attitude I learnt about this week, yes, here it goes. As I previously mentioned, whenever any issue used to crop up, I used to end up cribbing about something or the other.

So this week was full of issues, one or the other especially relating to code. Since I was a lot more happier these days, I suddenly gave a thought, instead of issues coming to me, I would rather run towards issues. Though I did not end up running from desk to desk asking my team members for issues, I thought let me put up a brave face to all these issues instead of just saying " Not again "... I did it. ( I mean it).

Frankly speaking, it worked, I do not know how to put it, but at this moment in time, if I want to tell you something, it that, after all these years, I have finally managed to change my attitude towards issues, problems, new technology, or whatever,.

And instantaneously I feel the enthusiasm to learn lots of new things, solve few more issues, read about new technology and apply to solve existing problems. You wont believe when I say, I am so excited, I feel like throwing away all the code I have written and then re-write everything from scratch. ( though I cannot do that, because it has undergone so many cycles of testing.. lol ). But yes, I am happy. Its late than later.

This is what a change in attitude can bring. I am sad to say that, it took me so much of time to actually put it into practice at workplace or wherever... All I can say is reading a lot and lot of inspirational blogs off late has really really, brought about a change in me. We actually need to apply it. There is whole lot difference between reading and applying... I feel all these years, I was actually reading and reading about them, but never applied to this extent. Yes, applying is a whole lot different than reading...I wish I realize sooner about loads of other things as well..

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: Long post, but I do not intend to confuse anyone
I should have written this post yesterday but never mind, better late then later.

 Yesterday, was trying to make a build out of a huge huge code base, with lots of unknown stuffs. Failed miserably a couple of times, got latest code from source control, tried to build and failed again. Tried to copy the working folder from friends machine, still could not copy due to some error. In the end had to make another attempt to get the code from the source control ask for a bit of help from my friend, then reading carefully each and every line of error message, trying to figure out what went wrong, I could find out the missing files, download them separately. With an hour extra at office, I could figure out what went wrong and finally got the build up and running before I left for the day. And yes, it all happened because of a change in attitude. If not, I would have either waited for monday to ask for seniors for help or would have gone for the shortcut, ie copying the whole code from friend's machine. But this exercise was fun. It really opened me up..

Cheers once again

Memories

Here I have another article on Memories.....

Recently one of my cousin had shared a link on his facebook account. It was none other than 90's song.

The song was "Kal college bandh ho jayega main ... " from the movie Jaan Tere Naam.  This song really brought back loads of memories.. Incidentally, I happened to press the like button on my cousin's facebook entry and also commented saying brought back loads of memories, 90's.

I had no clues that I would be writing this particular entry, but thanks to my dear friend, who reminded me. When I pressed the like button on my cousin's entry, my friend could see it on his page. So when I met him yesterday, he asked, what this memories was all about. So I had to tell him the whole story. And that is what I am going to do now.

It sounds weird, but frankly speaking, I get more happiness and more out of life by doing weird things.

The story goes back to early 90's may be 1993 to 1996 to be precise. I was a kid of 10 years, I had a bunch of friends namely N, N's sister and one more person V. So during the evenings when N's mother used to go out for work, we friends including my brother would gather at N's place and place hide and seek.

So you might be wondering what has this song got to do with playing hide and seek. Yes, there is a connection. We used to play hide and seek inside N's house and that too in the evening. His house a 2BHK.
Playing hide and seek inside the house in the evening, what is the whole point about it you might be wondering as well imagining, how would it be like playing hide and seek, inside a lit house in the evening, where will these 5 guys hide. what are the rules etc etc.

Let me clarify the whole stance.
Firstly our team comprised of me, my brother, N, N's sister and occasionally, V, or A.
Secondly we used to play hide and seek in the evening, not in a well lit house but in a dark house, Yes we used to turn off the lights just for the purpose of playing hide and seek.
Thirdly we used to hide in the house, under the cot, dining table, kitchen. (no bathroom please).

So when we used to play hide and seek in the dark, we used to play all kinds of Hindi movie songs, like songs from the movie phool aur kante, deewana, jaan tere naam. And yes N' s music system or u can call al tape record, had this equalizer lights.

I hope now you got the connection between all the points.

Cheers, love the 90's and yes, so so happy that I have grown up doing all kinds of weird things. Thanks to my parents.

Some inspirational stuffs

For days I have not opened my google reader. Infact when I joined my new workplace in June 2010, I asked my manager, can I use google reader at workplace. He immediately said "no". Then I asked, can I write one, so that I can subscribe to the feeds and moreover its my own written application, for which he said "no".

So I was left with no option but to save the blog url's as my favorites in the internet explorer and then try to revisit each and every blog looking out for new entries. Never mind, it happens once in a while.

Its almost 8- 9 months, I am not seriously following much blogs. time and again I end up reading travelogues, because I love to travel and its on my list for 2011.

But apart from them I dont know how, but somehow I stumbled upon this brilliant website called the dumblittleman.com, and from there on I am picking loads of inspirational blogs.

Yes, I never knew so many people exist whose entries could lift me up to this level that, I am even ready to take the risk to quit my job without having another job in hand.

Not sure, how this transformation happened overnight, but its true. In 2008 when the so called recession happened, I was scared what will happen if I end up losing job.

But now, I seriously feel like quitting without another job in hand. After all I may end up at home for 2 months or may be 6 months, its worth a try. I can travel a lot, play a lot of games, drive my car umpty number of times on highway, read lots of books, blogs do some certifications and eventually find another job.

I might lose out on money, but frankly speaking, what have I gained, following the pursuit of money. Nothing really.

So come June 2010, I will be a free bird out of bonded labor.

Ok, so my cribbing is done, let me share some of the inspirational stuffs which I have read over the last couple of weeks, which really helped me change myself and get ready to take risk.

I work to live, not live to work. So I gotta loads of other things apart from work.

Here goes few links,, will keep updating once I get more by the way.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/39-ways-to-live-and-not-merely-exist.html

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/02/most-important-question-youve-probably.html

http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/the-courage-to-learn/

http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/4-bad-decisions-and-what-i-learned-from-them/

http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/finding-the-company-that-lets-you-be-you/

http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/how-i-ended-up-with-the-greatest-job-in-the-world/

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/02/how-to-stay-motivated-when-you-hate.html

http://celestinechua.com/blog/whats-on-your-bucket-list-101-things-to-do-before-you-die/

http://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/25-ways-to-become-an-american-overnight-without-a-visa/

Cheers,

Party time

Went to a party after office. There was lots of good food and drinks, infact no music nor dancing. Had loads of good food. With a full tummy drinking Vitagen (probiotic drink) I am writing this post.

It was appraisal time at our office during January, and few people got promoted. So they combined together and hosted a party.

Ate 3-5 pieces of roti / Naan or whatever, paneer, daal, halwa, kheer, then veg biryani and had two glasses of coke ... I am done. Tummy full.. Another day in Singapore to remember.

Cheers,

PS::: The party was at Ras Bytes opposite to office, else I guess, I would have skipped...

Looking forward to June 2011, Part 2 of the series

The previous post described few things...

1. my future plans once my contract gets over in June 2011.

2. things running in my mind.

I did not write about my interests which I would love to pursue once I am back in Bangalore. Yes, I have reserved it for a separate post. There are loads of things which I would love to do once I am back in Bangalore.

I would like to write all of them as I do not want to miss out on them. I have already missed out on loads of things in the period starting from June 2010, to June 2010, the most important being, marriage events of Abhijit, Vaibhav and Muthukumaran. ( I am sorry guys, please forgive me if possible ).

Before writing all the points, I would like to

1. Thank god for giving me such a lovely parents, for giving me such a lovely opportunity where in I can openly write about think about things which I love to do. I am what I am because of you God.

2. Thank my parents for giving me everything, till date. Yes you may be wondering, I am working since close to 6 years, but still I feel happier when I get something from my parents rather than I buy myself. (Its got nothing to do with spending my parents money instead of mine). Somehow I feel whatever I get from my parents is just gold.


Now straight to the point, here are the list of things which I would love to do starting from June 2011.


1.  Visit to Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple.

I just love this temple. The last time I visited this temple was when I was in a company in ITPL and was praying for opportunities outside, and I was rewarded with this onsite opportunity. This time I have to loads of things to pray for. This is first on my list.

2. Listen to loads of music-

Hindi - Rock music, english retro, whatever. I am out of touch when it comes to the latest rock songs or movie songs. Would love to follow the one and only international music radio station in Bangalore regularly. ( I mean it ).

3. Read loads of books.

Yes, though in Singapore, I have taken public library membership, I regret not having read much. I guess buying books on Avenue Road for Rs 75 each makes me really really happy. Above all there is some library which seems to have started in Bangalore, with a branch in RRNagar, hopefully I can get a membership over there.

4. Play lot of PC Games.

In the year 2010, I purchased a new PC with the sole intent of playing games on it. But sadly since I had to move out I could not play much games. Now that I have decided to be back, I sure shot shall play lots and lots of games, Infact have plans to fit in a Logitech MOMO Feel force Steering wheel for playing car race games. I am keen on this one.

5. Swimming.

Though Best club close to my house has a swimming pool , I am not sure how regularly I can swim. But I would love to swim after a tiring days work. Great way to unwind infact.

6. Gym

I have even plans to join Gym. Hoping 3 days to gym and 3 days to swim would be meaningful.

7. Watch loads of movies.

After coming to Singapore, I have not watched TV even for atleast 30 mins, since I do not have access. Even though there is a TV in the place where I stay , I still do not watch it because not many channels are available. Never mind, once I am back I hope to see loads of movies, old ones, new ones, and even those movies which I have already watched, like Jab We Met.

8. Evening walk at RRNagar.

Though I have of interest in going for an evening walk with my friend in RRNagar, it is subject to his availability. My friend is married and moreover he is looking for opportunities outside Bangalore. So I guess time will only tell.

9. Weekend drives on Mysore Road.

This one is a sure shot. There is no second thoughts on this one. Mysore Road, Maddur, KokkareBellur, Ramnagara, Chennapatna, sure you can find me at one of these places on weekends. And Tatte IDLI on Bidadi, wow love to do that.

10. Photography.

I am keen to pursue photography. Thinking of attending a photography course after coming back to Bangalore. I am also keen on buying a good DSLR camera this year and take my photography interests to one more level.
I would love to capture few landscapes. Right now if you ask me which landscape you are currently imagining, I would say, on the way to Kunigal via Magadi, there is a lonely road, I would like to stop over there and to do some photoshoot. Sounds crazy, rite, but its true. Loved driving through that road> i miss it.

11. Gaming with brother and brother in law.

This one is also a top priority. Now that, I have a laptop over here and a good PC at home. My dear friend (who is also my brother in law now), can accompany me and my brother in multiplayer games. Wow what a sight it would be, 3 people one room, gaming and gaming and nothing else. I am sure, Abhijit, if you read this, you would also be as excited as I am.

12. Try out some other technologies.

Somehow after reading some blogs of people who use open source technologies, I am feeling the itch to learn loads of new technologies apart from .NET. this includes, Linux, C, C++, Perl, PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and loads of things. Infact experimenting with Linux instead of Windows is one of my main interests in the coming months.

13. Learn loads of stuffs related to Microsoft Technologies.

It might sound crazy but I would love to learn, COM, DCOm,Win32 Api.
Apart from this I am seriously considering about going for a course on Microsoft expression blend (if someone is ready to teach). I would love to learn WPF as well as VS2010.

14. Trip with my cousins.

There is nothing more than this one, which makes me happy. Sitting in the last row of a Tempo Traveller, cracking wild jokes in the middle of the night, laughing our loudly till there are tears in our eyes, is something what I am looking forward to. we have done it many times in the past and yes this year we are going to do it again.

15. Thinking of visiting Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari.

I could have written about this in the previous post, but since my cousins have already been to these places, they would not accompany us on the trip. I have to look for a new company infact. Let me see.

16. Visit the hill stations once more.

Love to revisit Ooty, KodaiKanal, Yercaud once again. Nothing like this.

17. Travel to Kerala and Coorg.

Would love to visit these two places as well.

18. Trekking.

Would love to trek to Kumaraparvata, Kudremukh and other places.

19. To blog more.

In the year 2010, I had written about 123 posts. In the 2 months into 2011, I only have 9 posts. I have loads of catching up to do. In other words, I have to blog more and more and more.

20. Helping my mother out with cooking.

It may sound silly to you, but I am pretty pretty serious on this one. I have learnt to cook basic stuffs over here. I would like to help out my mother once I am back in Bangalore. My mother has been managing office work as well as household since many years, all alone, I guess now its time for me to pitch in.

21. Technical blog.

This is something which I supposed to have started years ago. But better late than later. I hope to get more serious on technical stuffs once I am in Bangalore.

22. Side projects.

Learning new technologies goes hand in hand with this. So this should not be a surprise. Love to code more ...

23. Read more blogs / follow more blogs.

Love to read lots of other blogs. I need to install Sharpreader and start all over again. But do I mind.. Not an inch..

There are loads of other points which I am not able to recollect as of now. will update the post as and when I recollect few more.

Updated 21 Feb 2011.

24. Take drawing classes.

All through this blog, I have never written that, as a kid, I loved to draw. Though my drawing skillset is quite bad. Not sure whether pencil drawing or sketching can be taught or has to come naturally, but surely I would like to pursue it more seriously. I know I am bad at it. I want to learn. This occupies #24. [Am off to search on google trying to find if drawing can be taught or has to come naturally]

Updated 17 Mar 2011.

25. Start a new blog dedicated to portraits of strangers with a brief description into their life and lifestyle. Inspired by the website 100strangers.com

26. Cycling - I would love to cycle to my cousin's place in Nelamangala, via toll road, and also, along the road from Big banyan tree all the way to Magadi.

Cheers,

Straight from my heart - Part 1

This 2 series posts are very special to me. These are very close to my heart. I have spent day and nights thinking and thinking, and finally I have arrived at a decision.

I only hope this blog of mine and especially this post of mine never gets noticed at my workplace. I need to make sure, that I do not access my blog from office and clear the history from my browser.

Never mind, it should not stop me from writing this post.

In the month of May 2010, I received an employment opportunity with one of the organizations in Singapore. This was the first time I was about to work abroad. I accepted the offer and relocated to Singapore.

So now let me cut short my employment related thing, and talk about how I felt like.

I was seriously very happy on one side that, someone was providing me an opportunity to work abroad. (Else I would have to go in for a Visa, quit current job,move to another country, then look for a job there. Here i was rest assured of a job).

But on the other side, I felt I would be missing my parents, family, cousins, my car. I would miss out on long weekend drives, on Mysore Road, trips to neighboring places with my cousins.

Somehow I did not think much and just moved to Singapore.

Now that I am into my 9th month in Singapore, I can say that, I have learnt lots of things here, apart from work related stuffs, as a person I have grown matured. I hope my parents would be happier when they see me after a year.

Initially I was quite pleased about the whole aspect of working abroad, thought it would add great value to my resume. In other words, you can say for first 3-4 months in Singapore, I was on a high.

Later after 6 months of my stay over here, I realized I was missing loads of things. I had a crazy life style in Bangalore. I have always been under the shadow of my parents. I do not regret it even an inch, and I thank my parents for that.

After coming to Singapore, my life style was kind of different, I was no longer able to do those crazy things which I used to in Bangalore. So I thought and thought and then realized, I was more happier in Bangalore. So I decided to return back.

The problem  was I was in the middle of a contract, if I had to return back I would have to pay money. Hence I resisted the temptation of returning back after 7 months.

But now since the thought of returning back had come up in my mind, my heart started to feel happy. ( I dont know how to put it, but seriously somewhat my heart felt lighter).

The first thing, which comes to your mind when giving up current job is about your next venture. How are you going to find another job. The coming days, I started thinking of how to give interviews from Singapore to companies located in Bangalore.

I was and still am in touch with a friend of mine, who works for a company in Bangalore, asking him to get an interview opportunity for me. I even asked him if a telephonic interview was possible. Though it seems highly unlikely, he sure assured me he would do his best. In this current month, though my heart was happy I still was wondering, what would I do without a job in Bangalore. It still was pinching me, the whole idea of quitting Singapore job and landing jobless in Bangalore.

All these days, I was reading loads of blogs, travelogues, people who have travelled around Karnataka. I started to miss my weekend drives on highway even more.

I was wondering when would I feel better. Then came one such day, I was reading the blog of a person from Bangalore. The person had just quit his/her job in order to take up a career as a freelance writer/photographer and to pursue his/her interests in the year 2011. And when I read through the comments section I found out one more such person , who has just quit his high paying job in order to pursue his/her interests.

This kept me thinking. Finding a job in Bangalore was the biggest hurdle in me continuing to stay over here or coming back. I just gave a thought on this particular direction, about quitting the job over here whatever may be the case. I may get or may not get a job in Bangalore, but who cares.

Then I felt happy, seriously happy. My heart now feels better. I have nothing to worry. I can go back to Bangalore and look for a job over there. I have nothing to prove to anyone.

I have also decided on taking a month's break before joining.

Firstly thanks to these two people who literally influenced my decision. Secondly these days I end up reading loads of inspirational stuffs. I have posted few of them on facebook. Thanks to these guys too..

So now that I have decided to move back to Bangalore in the month of June 2011, I can now decide on what all the things which are all the unfulfilled desires of mine, and which are my interests which I am going to pursue in the year 2011.

Well, infact, I originally intended to write those things in this particular post, but never mind, I had a long (I hope not boring) story to tell. Will reserve those things for another post of mine.


Cheers,

Less blogging these days...

2 months into 2011, I have written only around 6 blog posts. There is nothing to hide, my writing has come down. Though some days I feel like writing I do not end up posting it over here.

I hope by June / July 2011, I shall be back with my original form and at the end of the year 2011, I can boast of an equal number of posts as 2010.

Cheers,

One such weekend

Last week, I had been to Universal Studios Sentosa. Sentosa is a small island resort in Singapore. It has lots of attractions. This is my second visit to Sentosa. The first time I had been with my friend, visited Fort Siloso, Merilion, History of Singapore and saw a 4d movie spanning 20mins.

This time I had primarily thought of visiting Universal Studios. Universal Studio is a theme park consisting of different rides which span across different environment. 

like..
1. Egypt section has a big tomb kind of thing, which is not pyramid shaped but in a normal shape of a rectangle. Inside it was a roller coaster ride in the dark.
2. Similarly there was an area called the Sci-Fi city where in there we two other roller coaster rides.
3. Apart from this there was also a ride in the area known as the Lost World. I missed this ride, since the waiting time was about 90minutes.
4. I also visited the water show, which is similar to a stunt show, where in some action sequences are performed.
5. I once again saw a 4D movie this time, a Shrek movie which also lasted for about 15-20mins.

So all in all it was a good day. I had got 4 days off on the occasion of Chinese new year, so went to this place on one of the day.

Last time I had been to Sentosa, I went through the Cable car, but this time, I used the board walk from Vivo city mail.

It was indeed a good experience, much needed break after so many days of hard work at office.

Cheers,

I read a lot of blogs

Yes its true. Though after I moved to Singapore, my writing has taken a big hit (though I have loads to share about what I do over here just to pass time). I do not write much because most of the time, I end up coming home tired from work, check mails a bit of facebook, listen to some songs online, and re-watch another episode of TinTin and thats it.

In such situations I miss a handy smart phone, on which I could have just blogged whenever I felt like. But I am in no mood to spend money for a new mobile. My team members call me a miser , jugga or conjouice....(dont know how to spell it). But frankly speaking people are advising me to ditch my old Nokia 1100 mobile for a new phone whilst I was in India only, may be from a year I guess.

But I dont really need the need to get a new mobile. I need a phone to speak to my parents and friends which I do it from my Nokia 1100. But regarding hooking to internet on the go, blogging on the go, well i do not want to run towards them, by buying a new phone. I may miss out on 1 or 2 interesting topics or photos whilst not having a phone, but apart from that its the same. Yes I can read lot of blogs on the go too if I have a smart phone. But yes, its not mandatory as long as my reader keeps track of the new entries, I can read it anytime.

Though I do not blog much  these days, I do read a lot of blogs. Its something which keeps me hooked to my home country India. I see there are lots of bloggers in Bangalore, who do a lot of traveling, I am envious infact, but yes, in another 4months time, by God's grace, it shall be home sweet home for me too.

So reading these blogs is a good past time for me. I read loads of books , but yes bloggers English is easy to understand and most of them write about their life's ups and downs and travels unlike fiction authors. So all in all a good time pass.

Above all I have drawn loads of inspiration from blogs of people, who have gone out of the way just to do what they love. They really really show me, that its "One life we got to do what we should ".

My feed reader's subscription is increasing day by day. So many blogs to read from all about travel, daily life's, Bangalore events, news.

So Cheers,
Happy reading..

Todays updates...

Out of nowhere I am writing this post. I just feel like writing. Its 1 am in the morning. I am supposed to sleep, but since tomorrow is a holiday (as well as the day after... its Chinese new year guys on 3Feb and 4 Feb 2011). So I am taking it easy.

Planning to wake up late but yet go to office. So its been a kind a good day. I was assuming to stay at home tomorrow and sleep the whole day. But unfortunately there seems to be never ending work at office. Have to be at office tomorrow. Never mind, tomorrow is tomorrow. So for today's updates..... here it goes..

For the last few weeks may be 2-3 weeks I am putting in 12 hours each day @ office. Not sure if my productivity can match my length of stay (time duration) at office. But still, cannot leave earlier.. So called deadlines, and being contractor the ever green threat of being fired, makes me stick to office.

Fortunately 8 months are done, 4 months are pending. But coming to the happy part of today. Was at office today till around 11pm. One of my colleague who was with me at office, asked me whether I have the ingredients for the coming 3-4 days since all the shops (well most of them) shall be closed since its Chinese new year.

I somehow confidently proclaimed that, there is shop (super mart) near my house called Prime Super Mart, which shall be open throughout the night and over the next 3 days as well.

Though I did not know for sure whether it will be opened or not, I told him about it because, I could always see tonnes of stuffs stacked outside the shop and the shop ideally runs 24 hrs on each day. I thought who would move loads of all these things from outside into the shop and then lock it. It looked to me like an arduous task, to which my friend said alright.

I in turn thought, let me buy wheat bread over there while going home tonight so that I can prepare some bread sandwiches for tomorrow.

But to my utter surprise, the shop was shutdown, the whole stack of goods which used to be outside the shop was all moved inside and there you go, I was left empty handed. So at night 11 45 pm, I had no option but to walk a good 1.5 kms towards Little India. So went there , had dinner in one of the Indian restaurants which runs 24 hrs a day and then went to Mustafa to get bread and some ready to eat food.

This time, I saw some ready to eat stuffs of a brand by name "Ammas Kitchen" or something. So brought 3 packets of ready to eat rice items and then brought a can of tender coconut drink.

Yup these are updates for the day, came home and logged in to check mails, found Prashanth online so called him up on his India number and shared a few jokes. All in all a good day..

Cheers,

PS:: more than being happy for myself, I feel happy for those laborers who were sitting in front of a coffee shop (which was shutdown) and drinking beer having food and talking over the phone with people / family I guess in India / Bangladesh / etc etc. These laborers work very hard and mind you, they get just 1 day off on Sunday. Now that its Chinese new year, I hope these guys too get 4 day leave in a stretch... Yup.. seeing them having a gala of a time really made me happy, infact thats what made me write this post.


 

Nothing much to blog about....

My writing in the last few months has taken a big hit.. Yes.. I am in no mood to write.. Just feel as though I want to come back to Bangalore ..and be myself..

These days working hard.. really really hard.. I shall remember my Singapore days once I go back to Bangalore.

Had been to office yesterday.. Working closely with testing team.. not able to close issues.. not getting sign off from them.. Its headache at its best..

But the point is days are running and I am getting closer and closer to June..

A trip to Malaysia, Indonesia, and Langkawi.. and I am done.. will be back to Bangalore...

My friend is getting married tomorrow.. Today there is a function too.. So missing loads of things..

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: Yes Kranti.. I 2 miss the evening walks in RR Nagar...

Memories...

Recently I got a marriage invitation. It was one of my class mates. I haven't spoke to him in the last 5 years. But I do keep getting few mails from him once in a while. So got this mail about marriage invite.

Why am I writing this post, is because of location where he was getting married. He in fact was getting married in a wedding hall located in Malleshwaram.

I do not know, but somehow time and again memories pop up.

I have lived my first 15 years of my life in Malleshwaram. So this place is more like home to me. Infact the marriage hall was somewhere around 8th cross Malleshwaram.

What I can recollect is, when I was a kid, there used to be a small shop in the underground, some where opposite to the marriage hall, which used to sell lots of toys meant for kids.

I still remember my father getting me a Hot wheels car after every year annual exams. Yes its true. I had a desire to collect as much Hot wheels cars as possible, but the truth is I could gather 8 or 10 only. Never mind.

All in all, a post out of no where. But at least I am in a mood to write something.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS::: Yes, I did not attend the marriage.. (as usual)

Retrospect.. a sneak peek into my 2010

Not sure why I am writing this.. but yes.. I have to write about what I have done in the current year, what am I going to do in the coming year.

2010 as year has been quite good to me. But as I write this post,  I am a bit upset, bit depressed. Let me come to the point as to why am I upset later.

But 2010 started in a good way for me. I found an offer from a new software company in Bangalore for quite a good salary. There was no looking back. I joined this company on 4 January 2010. This company was really good. There I met one of my old classmates working for the same company. He along with 2 other people from Bangalore became so close that, we formed a group of our own and then kept on hanging out together in ITPL.

All good things have to come to an end, like wise, my friends and me started to find the work over there not so interesting, So one by one my friends started looking out for a job outside.

Finally it was my turn to look out. I indeed ended up with couple of offers from companies in Bangalore. But I chose to work in Singapore. I ended up in Singapore, but I guess I left my heart in Bangalore only. Yes its true.

I wonder if its one of the not so worth decisions of my life, which I took in the month of May 2010, that I am still repenting upon it. Though there has been lots of positives which have come out of it. I still feel I missed out on loads of things.

Why am I writing this post is, at this moment I miss Bangalore very much, I have been talking to family and friends and loads of people about how I feel after 7 months in Singapore. Many people have told me to continue even after 1 year in Singapore.

But that is not going to be the case with me. I am planning to join a company in Bangalore once my 1 year contract finishes. I feel I have saved some amount of money, now its time to get back to Bangalore and do all those things which I have missed out in 2010.  Yes visit loads of near by places travel a lot and have a gala of a time with family and friends.

After all mother and motherland are sweeter than heaven. I guess I am not one of those persons who can stay away from Bangalore for a long time.

So its just 5 months away for me to be in Bangalore. I hope these remaining 5 months just ease away in no time and I find my way back home.

Once upon a time I prayed and prayed to God for a  better opportunity now I am praying to God to help me just pass out these 5 months so that I can be back in Bangalore. Yes I miss my hometown very much.

I do not know how the 2 people who read my posts will react when they read this post, but yes this post is all about my heartfelt feelings of missing the warmth and lovely atmosphere of Bangalore. There is no place on earth like Bangalore.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Time to party

Its almost 4 weeks, since the last time I had visited the disco. In these 4 weeks, I really had out done myself with the work, felt too much stress. So had to find a way out to destress. As I wrote in my previous post, a leave on a working day was denied to me, so had to do something on this weekend.

Friday night was one such occasion, where I stayed late, was roaming around little India, sat @ Hookers for about an hour and half, then came back home at 2:30 am in the morning.

But Saturday was a bit different, went to the disco this time the one with Indian music. Before that, went to Orchard road to look out for Christmas decorations and some performances happening over there.

Then went to Clarke Quay where in me and my friend sat for sometime having a drink and felt hungry so we went to Boat Quay to have food.

So it was around 1am in the morning when we were done with food, took some photos and then ended up at Clarke Quay. Decided to go to the Rupee room and danced from 1 30 am till 5 am in the morning.

Took the first train home and have been sleeping all day.

So tomorrow all set for office.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Leave or no leave..

After days and days of working, I finally did some release to the QA, hoping I would get a day off after the release. I was overjoyed thinking of a one day leave during the week.

I thought everyone would agree that I had worked quite hard since last few weeks including Saturday and Sunday too and give me a day off.

So went and told my manager that I wanted to take a leave on December 24 2010. But sadly my manager refused to grant me leave and told me to take leave only on the next friday since QA work is going on, I need to be there.

Now even though my mind refused to think, to code, I still had to manage a day ie today and I did it.

Gosh. finally its weekend.

Hoping to dump my stress and frustration over the weekend..

Cheers,

Some relief finally

After days and days of coding, finally did a kind of release to the QA team. There are lots of missing functionality in the code and lots of things are buggy, but still at the end of the day, my back feels a bit lighter.

Now I can look at some other stuffs. Moreover I can enjoy on this weekend. No need to think about work. But still two more days to go before the weekend comes up.

I still feel a bit nervous about the missing functionality in the code and about the bugs which shall be reported tomorrow onwards. But yes, something has finally gone for testing.

When I told my friend Nageswara Rao,  he told to party, celebrate..

Incidentally, my other room mate gave jamoons, celebrating birth of his niece back in India...

So..... having jamoon, today feeling a bit lighter too.

Thanks a ton God.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Listening to music...

This week, I took some time out, to catch up with some of my old favorite songs.

Though these days, I am not actively listening to any english music, I adore the songs of yesteryears.

I love many bands. One such band is The Beatles. I knew nothing about the Beatles till 1993. On one fine day, my father took me to Brigade road, to get the Beatles tapes. I still remember that day. Coming home I started listening to the Beatles.

I love the song Sha la la la , baby its you.. I liked many other songs.. though I do not remember all of them.

So here is my post remembering the day when I go to know about the Beatles for the first time. Yep its 17 years back. But I still remember the day very well..

Cheers,
Sandeep

One such strange day...

Today was one such strange day where in I had taken leave from work,. but still ended up at workplace.

Yes, Monday blues had caught up with me. I had headache and was in no mood to go to the office. So woke up an hour late and called my manager saying that I wont be coming to work. Then again I dozed off.

But I was up in an hour's time. This time I was wondering what would I do sitting at home. My headache had calmed down a bit. So decided to go to workplace and ended up at work. So took my colleagues and manager by surprise.

I still remember one such instance, were I had previously been, in which I told my manager that, I would not be coming to office but still ended up at work.

Yes, it was during one of my earlier companies. I had told my manager I will not be coming to the office, instead I was planning to attend a walk-in interview.

So when I went for the interview, it was called off and I had nothing to do for the day. My workplace was close to the place where the walk-in was happening and as a result, I ended up going back to the office. Strange is it.

Yes, today was one such day (but I was not attending any interviews) and the other day is dated about 5 years back.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Spoke to a friend after a long time

To my surprise, I got a response from a friend, whom I was trying to contact since many days. Over the last 5 years, I have met many wonderful people at work. So this person incidentally happened to be one of my friends from my first work place.

Yes, its been almost 3 years, since I had last spoken to him, though we did kept in touch with mail.

So feeling kind a good speaking to someone after a period of 3 years. Incidentally he is in UK since one year.

Loads of things we talked about and unknowingly we ended up speaking for more than an hour.

You never know how time flies when we are speaking to interesting people. Yep..

Janardhan you are one such brilliant person. All the best in your future endeavors. Surely we shall meet in India.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Some inspiration from Pravs world

10 steps to Success.. not sure how many do I follow religiously.. but surely worth a mention.. 

1. Self-Belief:
Success is begins in the mind. One has to be a believer, first, if one wishes to be an achiever. Never under-estimate yourself. You have no idea how often can you surprise yourself. So to begin with, let's get in the belief, "I Can."

2. Clarity of Vision:
There is no point running around without knowing where one wants to reach. you must get your job cut out. Greatest achievers in the world have been visionaries. Know exactly what you are best at and give it your best shot.

3. Setting the Right Goals:
The goals should be realistic .The goals should be achievable ,and yet challenging enough - neither too easy nor too difficult -something in the middle.

4. Be focused:
If the sun's rays are focused on a piece of paper with a lens, the intensity of the concentrated energy burns the paper. Focus on your objective will enhance the intensity of the effects of your efforts.

5. No Short Cuts to Success:
There are no short cuts to success. Divide your overall goals into smaller targets. Divide your monthly plans into weekly and weekly plans into daily plans and see how simple can things be.

6. Take Risks:
Without any risk no progress is possible. Life comes to a stable standstill. People who take chances are the people who get ahead in life. The only way to reduce risk is to take risks.

7. Take the Initiative:
People who take the initiative make the most of their lives. Proactive people do not wait for success to happen; rather they make it happen. As they say, 'JUST DO IT'.

8. Never Hesitate to Struggle:
No one has ever climbed a mountain just by looking at it. Struggle, hard struggle, is a key to success.

9. Own Responsibility:
Failure to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. People, who own complete responsibility of their lives, are the people who make the most of it.

10. Never Give Up:
Many people who failed in life, where those who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Success demands extra-ordinary amount of perseverance. Never, never, give up.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Changing blog template...

Well, not sure its a ritual or what. I end up changing my blog template once in a year, or may be in the beginning of the year.

But this time I am doing it before the new year itself. Not sure why.

Also I have loads to write about my experiences in Singapore.

How it all started and how it all is shaping. But frankly speaking, I am not good at writing stuffs, as and when it happens. I love to write my memories out.

So hopefully I can recollect many such instances which I have encountered in the past 6 months and blog about them in the coming days.

Also till now I have never used the set date option while posting. Hopefully I shall use this time to make sure I write about stuffs which happened in appropriate months. (and also increase my post count for the year ;P)


Cheers,

Watched all episodes of Tintin

Well, well well, I finished with all the episodes of Tintin. Yup thoroughly enjoyed all the episodes. My favorites include TinTin and the Picarros, flight 714, 7 crystal balls and prisoner of sun.

But all in all relived many many childhood memories.

Cheers,

Tintin...

Yes, I got hold of all the episodes. Feels good to relive those childhood days, which I spent reading Tintin comics..

Cheers
Sandeep

Feeling better :)-

So many days, I have not blogged.. I feel I forgotten about many topics which I wanted to write. Never mind. But I am back at it again. I am happy for that.

So for the last couple of months was busy swimming, swimming, in fact so much focused on the swimming side that I totally forgot to catch up with a friend over here.

By doing this I was feeling a lot lonely. Even at work, you catch up with lots of people, at the end of day, you need to speak something apart from work too.

Finally when I decided to meet my friend, he was off to India, for a week, so could not meet him.

Now a slight pain in my back forced me to take a break from swimming for few days, and whoa I feel a lot better. I got loads of time for myself, I can now listen so songs, watch stuff, do load more things. It was swimming which was holding me back or stressing me up everyday.

Morning, I get up go to office, work, come back in the evening, run to the pool, come back sleep and yes, its morning again. Weekend as usual I used to swim in the evening, could not meet up with my friend, and me spending loads of time all alone was taking a toll on me.

So yesterday, finally met my friend spoke a lot, we sat in the park till night 2.30. It was good, to know that lot of other people in the city are awake too at that point of time. And yes, little India was awake too.

Cheers, feeling better,
Sandeep

Cousin's marriage

I have been out of India for over 5 months now. One of my cousin is getting married in Pune on 14 Nov 2010. But sadly I am not able to attend the wedding. I have been to Dharwad and Hyderabad for my cousins' wedding, but did not want to miss this one too.

Yes, sometimes to win something you have to loose something.

Cheers,

PS: I better learn free style swimming perfectly, I have already let down many people's expectations.

Lessons to learn

Its been a quiet 2 months. I have not written much. I have stopped reading books since 3 weeks. The only two things which I am focusing right now is work and trying to learn swimming.

Its been almost above 5 weeks. That I started to swim. But the sad part is I have not been able to do free style swimming properly. There is no such thing called perfection when it comes to me swimming. I think this thing is taking a toll on me.

I am not able to swim correctly even after so many days. This fact keeps coming back to me again and again. I have made a very good friend a localite a Singaporean who is helping me out with my swimming, free of cost.

He wants me to learn free style swimming. But what to do. Each and everyday I keep on doing mistakes. The next day I correct one mistake and then its altogether a new mistake.

I am very upset over this whole issue. While learning driving too I was very frustrated, and that too easily. But at a later stages, I was quite comfortable driving.

But when it comes to swimming nothing is really working out. My swimming is getting as bad as it can get.

Yesterday was one of the worst days in the pool. I have been doing all my mistakes while swimming in the bigger pool.  But yesterday another gentleman who also happens to be a professional swimmer told me that, I was unfit for the bigger pool.

He told me to correct my basic stuffs. He also told me that, I was not floating on water but instead sinking. Hence was turning my head too quickly to breathe. But he appreciated my enthusiasm that, I used to come everyday and was trying.

Its quite embarassing to hear those words. But yes, that is true I have been on the receiving end of these words yesterday. So today I am back to the baby pool, trying to work on my kicking.

It took me more than two months to drive confidently. I hope after 2 months or more I can swim as confidently as I can drive.

I just pray to god to help me.

I have no other option, but to learn free style swimming or just drown in the pool once for all. Yes I am serious, I never want to give up midway, learning. Its going to be now or never.

I guess this is what is stopping me from blogging, breaking my concentration at work etc etc. Its a huge huge embarassment.

Doing swimming with a correct technique is really a dream for me.

Cheers,
Sandeep

If I could write more

Time and again, I tend to take so much breaks.. Am i busy.. or am I stressed or am I out of topics.. I am really not sure. But swimming on a daily basis surely keeps me occupied. Not that I have learnt free style swimming, but for sure I am trying.

I once thought of writing about the memories which I have about my engineering days. But yet again, ran short of time, words etc etc and its still unfinished. Given the time, I just end up hooking onto the internet, chatting. But do I really get enough time on weekdays to chat, surf etc etc. Yeh may be a hour and a half or so.. apart from office I mean..

Wish I could write few more things.

Back to blogging...

Not sure how many times, I have written such a kind of post. But yep, yet again, after 20 days of break, I am back, writing an entry.

Had been to Johor Bahru, Malaysia today. Was kind of good day.

Will post something in a day or two. May be some pics of Johor Bahru and Sentosa as well..

Cheers,
Sandeep

Finally able to prepare Rajma dal in a proper way

I started cooking on my own, only after coming over here. Before this, never had even thought of making something on my own. Because, my mother always fed me with good food. Now that the need for me to cook had arised, I too joined the bandwagon.

In the last 3 months, I have learnt to cook rice, chapathi, dal. I cook semiya too, but in a different way. I assume not many people would agree with my way of cooking semiya.

Though I could cook few stuffs, cooking other things was literally eluding me. Like making vegetable curry. I was too lazy to cut onions and tomatoes, boil the vegetables and then mix them with other ingredients to make a curry.

Even after repeated suggestions from Kapil and family, I was still reluctant to go by the normal approach. I was not interested in deep frying onions in oil. But as I realized, it was the only way to make proper curry.

So yesterday, made up plans to cook Rajma dal. Thought I could do it in the same way as Toor Dal.

But I was advised to soak Rajma for 3-4 hrs before steaming it in a pressure cooker. So I did soak some Rajma yesterday. Since I went to swimming 2 times yesterday, I could not prepare Rajma yesterday.

Today I had to prepare Rajma in the morning. I tried my normal way of preparing Rajma, steaming it, then heating oil in a pan and then adding mustard and then Rajma and then water plus salt.

This did not work out. The water and Rajma did not mix very well. So when I spoke to Kapil, they again advised me to go with making masala by deep frying onions and then adding tomatoes, coriander powder. After which I needed to whip the solution.

So I thought, let me do in this way and try it. Believe me or not. It actually worked. The Rajma mixed quite well with the paste prepared out of Onions and tomatoes. Now I have invited my friend to have some Rajma for dinner, let me see what his feedback actually is.

I hope its proper. In that case, I can try out the same way for different vegetables as well.

+2 lessons learnt.

Lesson 1.. To cook Rajma.
Lesson 2.. Never be reluctant to come out of ur shell and try something different, by listening to friends' advice.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Time to post something

These days, I am getting lazy. I end up posting nothing for days together. So a few days back, I joined a nearby swimming center, not that I know how to swim, but to learn infact. So after two weeks, I can say that, I am satisfied with my progress.

Apart from that made new friends at the swimming pool, One person turned out from the same organization where I work, he sits in the same building as I do. So these days, he gives me company at the swimming pool. Unwinding after a stressful day seems to be so much fun. Each day, I just wait to run from work, rite across to hit the pool. Wow. Something to look forward, That makes me happy.

I can recall the song by Sheryl Crow " If it makes you happy :)- ", what a cute song.

Met two new people at the pool. Nice !!

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: You may think I have eaten few words in this post.. Yep.. Time for my dinner :)-

Its been a while :)

Its almost 2 weeks since I have posted. Not that I am too busy to post, but a pinch of laziness here and there. So finally after 26 years, I started with swimming classes. Its almost 12 years since I last entered the pool. So this time, spent around 3 hours at the swimming complex which is at 5 mins walk from my place.

Had the first day's session, and tried practicing whatever the trainer had taught. It has resulted in tremendous amounts of pain. Shoulders, arms, triceps, thighs, chest, now everything's in pain :)-

But yes, kinda good feeling, I am getting to learn swimming :)-

Cheers,
Sandeep

Nice way to end a weekend :)

First let me write about my previous post. About me missing Bangalore, India. Yes it happens. Sometimes my mind starts to ponder over a lot of things. Ok. Now let me now tell you how it all started.

Firstly I read a lot of blogs. Here and there, I remember quite a few blog url's, ( apart from the one's I have fed into my reader. I do not use at office because it reduces productivity ). So this Friday, after lunch, found quite sometime to open some blogs and I started reading. As I was reading came across various posts where the bloggers had travelled here and there, over Karnataka and lot other places. So this made me feel that, I was seriously missing something.

But let me tell you, the same evening, I spoke to my ex-lead Kishor, and finally after a bit of advice I was back myself. The feeling of missing on lots of things, just had calmed down.

So here I am trying to post enthusiastically about something, that happend, today evening. As usual, me and my friend went to Little India and had a pizza at the City Square Mall. And I went to do some shopping at Mustafa as usual. But today we had started a bit early may be an hour or so.

So we got loads of additional time, where in we could sit in the park. And to my surprise, there was a live band or orchestra or whatever, performing just opposite to the park.

Here we were, with some drinks in our hand, our tummy full sitting in the park and listening to some music. Could not understand an inch of the language, in which the songs were being sung, you can guess the language by the way. But the music was soothing.

We could also see some kids playing LOCK and KEY in the park. I was able visualise my good old childhood days when I used to play lock n key, hide n seek etc etc. It was kinda fun.

So all in all, a nice way to end the weekend.

Cheers,
Sandeep

I miss something :)

After coming over here, I have never let my mind ponder over few things. But today, I do not know why, I am kind of missing Bangalore, my parents, relatives, friends, I am missing my car, the highway runs I had in the last few months.

It was fun. I even miss out the outings or trips which I used to go out with my cousins atleast once in 6 months. Today, I was feeling as though I was missing out on the fun and action happening back in Bangalore. I was wondering, if I was in Bangalore, I could have visited loads of places by this time. With cousins, with parents, with friends, with other people etc etc.

But back in my mind there was the other thought. What have I seen in the past 26 years of my existance? Where all have I been. What have I done. What difference would it make on weekends? I would be as lazy as usual.

Anyways, why am I putting up this kind of off the beat post? I was trying for many days to travel, to look out for opportunities, now when I have got the opportunity, why am I cribbing that I am missing Bangalore. I really do not know.

That is why, people usually say, " The grass is always greener on the other side ". Hmmmm.

Cheers,
Sandeep

A thing which I haven't done for many days now :)

I was pondering over few things, which I was really missing over here. Also I found out something, which I have not done, in the past couple of months. I have not had a hearty laugh. Whilst I was in my previous company, I had few friends, with whom I had got accustomed in a few months time. It is with these people I used to have a hearty laugh, looking at people doing crazy things, my friends even used to make fun of me and I even used to laugh at myself at times.

Then one after the other, my friends' started to quit, then it was my turn.

Now I am all for myself. I do laugh few times a day. But this laugh is very much different compared to the laughing out loud which I remember doing.

Yes, life goes on. I am not upset about my current situtation, I am upset that, I am missing quite a lot of people at workplace, who used to propel each day of mine into a memorable one.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Pet Shop Boys - Home And Dry.

Here goes another gem from the PET SHOP BOYS.. This was early 2002 I guess. The first time, I heard it was on Radio City 91FM.. (now its 91.1 :P).

Gem of a song..

Cheers,
Sandeep

Pet Shop Boys - Can you forgive her?

One of my favorite songs of the 1990's. How can I ever forget The Pet Shop Boys. Just found a high quality video on youtube. So here it goes into my blog. Just love the song.

Still remember the days, when I used to watch the video of this,, Go West and Liberation on MTV.

Good old childhood days. Reminds me of loads of things.

Cheers,

Sandeep

100 for the year 2010

Its 4 am in the morning, as I write this post.

I am so happy, its 100th one for the year, in the 8th month.

So quuiiick..

Here s shouting out loud , Happy Independence Day People !!!!
Cheers,
Sandeep

Hyderabad Memoirs Part 2

I had been to Hyderabad, to attend my cousin's marriage. So we went by train. It was an amazing ride. No second thoughts on that. We arrived at the Kachigudda station early morning. Bride's relatives had come to the station to collect us.

I was carrying my Tourister travel bag, which was rather huge and heavy. It had clothes of me and my father and let me tell you, it contained nothing that expensive items.

So when we landed up at this station, people were waiting to collect all our suitcases and load it into the pickup van. But I was quite reluctant to give my luggage. I wanted carry my own luggage, I did not want any helper to load and unload my luggage. That was my point.

But since we, being from the groom's side, are well in for a royal treatment. We were not supposed to lift our luggages but instead come like kings and queens or whatever, which did not looked apt to me. You can imagine the scenario, me reluctant to let my luggage go, at the same time, the bride's relatives not letting me lift my luggage.

My cousin's thought it was comedy and started laughing. Infact they made fun of me even whilst returning from Hyderabad.

Apart from this, two other things happend which I can recollect.

I was trying for a cross domain transfer in my current company itself, so a friend of mine who was leading a team called me whilst I was in Hyderabad telling me to come for a one on one meeting with his manager. I was all set to resign from the company, but since I was in Hyderabad, told him, I would be back to Bangalore and then discuss upon it.

Also, during the time of the marriage, I think it was Saturday afternoon, precisely, I got a call from Bangalore from an anonymous company. Never heard of that company before. Somehow I said yes to the HR guy that I am ready to take up an interview over the internet, via gtalk.

So when I came back to Bangalore, I was kicking myself for saying yes to a company which I did not want to join, and after having two offers on hand. Somehow reluctantly I took interview over Gtalk and then was interviewed by two Italian people and ended up liking the idea of joining that company. It was located on the other side of the town. But I did not mind though. My profile was later dropped. I feel the salary may be the reason.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Hyderabad Memoirs Part 1

Time and again, I tend to recollect few instances which are close to my heart. One such incident is my cousin's marriage at Hyderabad during the month of November, the year being 2009.

This whole 3-4 days I spent at Hyderabad, was the best. I am not sure why I fell in love with Hyderabad instantaneously. May be because of the following few things.

> Salar Jung museum
               Amazing museum, unfortunate that I could spend only half a day over there. I wanted to see loads of things over there, but my parents kept on telling me to hurry. :)-

> Birla Mandir
              Superb, Neat is what I can say.

> Chowmahalla Palace.
              Ultimate, took me back to the times of the Nawab, awesome collection, loads of stuffs to see in there. I mean, how can I really say, you have to be there to experience it.

> Charminar.
              Nice, and the chudi bazaar next to it.. Amazing..

> Karachi bakery
              Awesome biscuits btw.

> Ramoji Film City.
             OMG, what an experience it was.. I did not want to come out of it..

Above all, I enjoyed the company of my cousins and relatives some of whom I had met after one and half years, yes, they stay in Mumbai and Pune fyi.

So here ending part 1.

Part 2 will have some funny incidents that happend during my stay over there :)-

Cheers,
Sandeep

Voila, what a co-incidence :)-

Disclaimer: This post is based on a real life incident, which I have been a part of. Its been kept as abstract as possible. None of the content in this post can be assumed as fictious.

Let me write few lines, before I actually go into the co-incidence part of the post. My finger tips are itching very badly, to type something continously. :)- By the way, I am not kidding...

There have been many highlights of the year 2010, and also the last 2 months of the year 2009. You can take it as November and December.

November 2009, was the month when I attended my cousin's marriage at Hyderabad. Not sure why, but I fell in love with Hyderabad, may be the reasons I shall put across in another post (Yeh remember 100 posts by today itself :P ).

So by the time, I applied leave at office to attend marriage, I already had two offers in hand. One the company which I would join and the other, the company which I would end up rejecting, leading to this voila coincidence, thus leading to this voila - co-incidence post over here.

Ok, let me tell you something, whilst I was attending interviews for other companies, I had secretly also requested a cross domain transfer. One of my friend who was leading a team over there, called up whilst I was in Hyderabad, to have a one on one discusson. I did not tell him that I was resigning, but told him, will come back to Bangalore and then discuss on the same.

So the day after which I came back from Hyderabad, I had to resign and yes I think, I did. Let me also tell you about some funny incidents that happend at Hyderabad, and some of my other recollections over there, which made me really, really to fall in love with the place. Yes, but in the next post of course.

So now coming back to the original post, did I drift away too much, never mind.. I have loads to tell, half of which tends to remain in my head itself, what if I write too much in one or the other posts??

Ok... here it goes.. So out of the two offers, I ended up rejecting one of them and silently joined a new organization on 4th Jan 2010.

And after few months of travelling to ITPL, I was not enjoying my current stint, so thought of attending interviews yet again. And yes, there were few partners in crime for me, who were constantly inspiring me to attend interviews, who themselves had 8-10 offers between them. So I joined the bandwagon, only 3 months after joining the new organization.

Would you believe thats a short period, a very very short period. So short that, your previous interviewer would not have forgotten your name in those 3 months. If you bump into them they can easily recognize you, thats the honest fact.

So again, I landed up with an offer from a company. I had to go and collect the offer from their office, located at ........... well, I wont write that give away clue by the way. When I collected the offer letter from HR, the lady asked me, "Did you ever have an offer from XYZ company few months before?"

I said " Yes, that is true, but how do you know it?", I requestioned.

She said " I was the one who mailed you the offer ".

Then she asked " Why you rejected the offer? " to which I gave some answer which seemed to be OK with the HR lady.

Then she asked one more question " What is the guarantee, that we are gonna see you in one month's time?".

I said " I have no other offers as of how, so I am surely gonna join this organization".

To which she said " You have the offer from company XYZ rite?".

I was shocked. I never knew an offer can last that long. 2 + 3 = 5 months and that too after rejecting it.. What kind of a question was that, I was wondering..

I replied " That was few months back not now and went out ".

If you want to know what happend next, let me tell you, I ended up rejecting that company offer as well. I had to return the hard copy of the offer letter.

Never mind, there was a DTDC branch at ITPL, few minutes job.

So this was the Voila - HR - What a co-incidence episode. If you are wondering, how could I not know that she belonged to the XYZ company in the first instance itself, let ne tell you, I had been hired by a recruiter who reported to her. The HR lady had then mailed me the offer.

My partners in crime, wanted me to ask one question to the HR Lady which I could not. They wanted to know, why she left the XYZ organization.??? Never mind, I thought..
Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: And yes, one of my partner in crime in my previous organization, went on to join Microsoft. Congrats for both and the other person joined a startup. Both are very happy and I would like to thank them for bucket loads of inspiration.

Trying to complete 100 posts today itself..

Well, I am trying to complete 100 posts by today itself, Let me see if I can do it.. Here goes the 96th one..

Happy Independence Day people :)-

Cheers,
Sandeep

Was watching a movie, reminded me of my engineering days.

Late in the evening, I was planning to watch a movie, the movie being Lakshya. I was very happy that the movie was available on youtube, the only drawback being it was put up in n number of parts. I thought never mind, let me atleast watch the same.

As I finished two parts, and moved to the third one, I got a message saying, this video cannot be viewed in the country of your residence. So I could not go ahead and watch the movie completely. But on the other hand, I could remember, the first time when I watched this movie.

It was way back in 2004, when UKN, Kranti and myself had rented out a DVD and watched the movie at Kranti's house. Good old days, we thought, then after which as usual we went for an evening walk, ate Bhel Puri, Masala Puri, whatever, was available, and then returned home.

Those days, we were utterly jobless. Our engineering days was coming to an end. Everyother guy in another college was getting placed one after the other, and we were not so lucky in getting a job on hand before graduating, alteast me and Kranti.

Yes, now recollecting the same, after 6 years time, that day seems to be as fresh as it can be, the same sunset, the same RR Nagar, the same, Bhel puri, the same double road but yes, we have grown 6 years older and yes, we have been working for the last 5 years.

Phew.. will those days ever come again with UKN being in US for the past 2 years and me being over here. I can hardly imagine, those golden days coming over again. And yes, with so much of added responsibilities, can we ever be so carefree and utterly jobless... Nopes is the answer.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Kind a happy today :)-

Yes, today I am happy, I got an account on Safaribooksonline.com. So now, I can read loads of books. Any book which is not available in the library, I shall search it over here and vice versa.

I have a new book to start for this weekend, apart from the one by Stephen King which I am reading.

Let me see, how much I can read over the weekend.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS::: Donated 10$ towards Pakistan Flood Relief Campaign.. Jee, there goes my good deed for the day :)-

A cartoon character which I liked :)-

I grew up watching cartoons, even to this day, I love watching cartoons. There are some cartoons which I really like and admire.

They are.

1. Looney toons show (fav being Bugs Bunny,)
2. Richie Rich,
3. TinTin.
4. Thomas And Friends.
5. Popeye the sailor

But my favorite cartoon character of all is none other than " ONION ".

Onion is one of the villain's assistant in the Richie Rich cartoon series.
I particularly like the way he keeps on eating onions. :)-

And the first time I saw Richie Rich cartoon was in N's house way back in 1993-94 may be.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Looong weekend comes to an end :)-

Its has been a gorgeous weekend. One pleasant one, of course. I had been to the Night Safari on Saturday and today, it was Singapore National Day celebrations. Had been to City Hall, for the parade and stuffs and ended up watching the fireworks and after that, headed to an Andhra restaurant, @ Little India, had nice Andhra food.

I shall add a few photos later. :)

Cheers,
Sandeep

My admission into engineering college.

After writing few posts about my childhood memories, I would like to also, write about my engineering days. Some glorious moments I have spent with Kranti, Nitin in the areas like Uttarahalli, RRNagar, Kengeri Satellite Town and surrounding places and not to forget SJBIT.

2001, was the year I got myself admitted into an engineering college. It was none other than SJBIT, close to my house, just 4.5 kms away.

I can remember, the first year of our college, there was no proper connectivity roads from the Kengeri road to college, It was recently laid out mud road, and there was no sign of asphalting.

Our first semester, was in the month of September or October. I can recollect, how our vehicles's wheels spun and spun as we tried to negotiate the incline. It was a big exercise. And above all it rained heavily.

After months and months of being at home, finally I was out and made few new friends, two of whom I have already mentioned, few others I shall write about if possible like Veeresh, Narayan and Vasim.

It was fun, I felt after few years, I too could work in some MNC's.  At the same time, Radio City 91.1 FM had just started its operations in Bangalore. Believe it or not. I rediscovered my lost interest in rock music because of 91.1 FM. Thank you guys.

And the next four years, were like a roller coaster ride for me. And after 5 years of graduation, I have never been back to my alma mater (since 2005) even once, yep, thats my bad. Hopefully sometime in future will make it.

So here I am remembering those golden moments, those windy days, those rainy days, trying to blog about them, trying to relive them yet again.

Hopefully I can write few more interesting stuffs which I went through during the year 2001-2005.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: As I write this post its 12 30 in the night and Kapil has just started towards Mustafa, to purchase groceries..

PPS:: You may find a similar post if you dig a bit deep into my blog. But I dont mind, writing about it again.. Do I??

2010 Mid year...

2010 started out well, pretty well. Starting with a new job, I began to travel a lot more. At office met few old friends and also made few new friends. By the end of sixth month, I joined a new organization.

Exactly two months into the new organization, I am writing this post. Its been a good year on the personal side. I feel I have grown up a bit. Staying away from parents for the first time.

When it comes to my learning curve, it still remains the same. I think its up to me to up my tempo, so that rest of the year remains equally exciting for me. Lets see,

Also, lately I have been putting across a lot of posts. Some of them are about my childhood memories, some of them are general posts. Every now and then, when I sit in front of laptop, I end up writing something or the other. But its good. So hitting the century mark by the 8 th month itself. Feat in itself.  :)

Cheers,
Sandeep

Huge weekend :)

Its one huge weekend coming up. Yes, its a 3 day weekend. 9 August, is National day. So Monday is off. Its been a long long time, since I have had a extended weekend. So after none of my plans have materialized I am writing this post, throwing up my hands in despair, that I could not pounce upon this 3 day leave.

I had a few plans but nothing has really worked out as of today, as I write this post. Let me see, if tomorrow holds something in store for me.

I have got my Malaysian Visa stamped, but no tickets booked to Malaysia as of now.
Have plans to go to Indonesia as well, but no company.
Also have plans to go to night safari tomorrow. Let me see if this atleast works out. Can have something to tell on Tuesday to my colleagues. Else its a shame, sitting all the days at home.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: Sitting at home, means, I get loads of time to work on some pet project.

Work while you work, play while you play....

After working for 5 years in the IT industry, I have learnt few valuable lessons. Two of them I want to share over here and how they play a prominent role in our day to day worklife.

1. Work while you work, play while you play,

2. A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.

You might be wondering, what the fuck I am talking about. It might make no sense to you initially, but as I elaborate upon my story, I would like to tell, how these two above quotes, fall into place.

While working in the IT industry, sometimes the learning curve is high. You may need to learn a few new things every now and then. But sometimes, people want to learn a few extra or additional things or work on stuffs simontaneously. Like working on pet projects, learning new technology which may be of no use when it comes to actual work. So what I would like to tell is that, its better to get involved in actual work at office totally. Learning new technologies which are of little use at work is absolutely a rubbish idea, after all we are not being paid to learn stuffs which we dont really use.

Infact, if we cannot keep up with latest technology its our problem. We need to work our asses off at some place other than workplace to learn new things. Yes, office time needs to be dedicated to office work only.

There were times, when infact, I actually had the itch to work on something in parallel, learn a new technology in parallel. But though most of the times, I have resisted the temptation, few times are there when though I have not worked on pet projects, I have got myself lost among loads of blogs which are available on the internet.

The end result of trying to learn new things at office just leads to more and more distraction. It also leads to boredom while doing the work allocated to us. Its like trying to catch two rabbits at the end of the day we are having none.. Not happy with office work, not happy with personal learning curve.

Infact, sometimes, I feel like taking an oath, saying, I would never read blogs at workplace. I would never think about learning new things at workplace unless they are actually required.

But yes, we need a break after all, thinking this, I just open another blog, and phew there goes an hour of productivity.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS::: I feel somewhere there is a balance between these two. May be an organization which has an open culture, to do what love to do the most at the same time, get the office work done as well.

Home food after 2 months..

After two months of eating here and there, I have been treated to some home food today courtesy Kapil and family. Yep, one more golden moment, found time to blog it over here..

Cheers,
Sandeep

Itching to buy a smart phone :)

Well, I have lately been impressed by the new gadgets available over here. Everybody over here has an IPhone.. Loads of other smart phones are also available in the market.

I still have a Nokia 1100 phone, am not sure, whether its embarassing or not. But most of the time, I do not get any calls over here.

Well, to get a Iphone or any other costly phone over here, I either have to buy it out for close to 900SD or opt for a 2 year contract.

I am not confident of going for either of them. I have to be in Singapore for 2 years or shell out 900SD and additional for usage.

But sometimes, looking at how people use their smart phones, even I get tempted to get one. Its been two months I have resisted the temptation. Having a smart phone with an internet, will allow me to blog, whatever comes to my mind, as and when it comes, apart from that, can tweet. These two things come instantly when I think about smart phone.  I think this carries a lot of weight, since, my previous post has been out on the golden moments while engineering.

Is it really worth it, can I hold back the temptation? Is it really worth to up the tempo of blogging. I really do not know. Apart from these two things like blogging and tweeting, I really do not find much any other uses. May be I can click photos on the go and upload simontaneously, but, is it really necessary for me to go trumpetting about the photos which I have clicked. I dont think so.

Its easy to get a phone over contract like its around 50SD per month for a period of 2 years, along with the data plan.

So rite now thinking over. By the way, if I get a HTC windows enabled phone for a good price, I am planning to buy it out. Lemme see.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS::: As I write this post, I have been invited by Kapil and family for dinner tomorrow night..

Wish I had :)

Well, had a little spare time over the weekend. Spoke to a lot of people, infact on Saturday slept at 4am in the morning. Heavy rainfall, had me awake by 6am, but managed to catch some sleep till 9 am. 

Watched a couple of movies. Infact I read through the blog a person, after which I ended like kicking myself. That blogger had started blogging since the year 2004. He had loads of entries, of his college days.

I too had few great years at college. SJBIT was a great great college. No wonder, I am what I am today, because of SJBIT. If I had started writing in a blog back in the yaer 2004, I would have a handful of entries.

My stay at the college, above all, my friends Vikram and Nitin, how we roamed around in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, eating roadside Bhel Puri. It was fun. The turn of events.

Not sure what was in store for us at the end of engineering,  but we walked, talked, played cricket. I only wish I had a blog at that time.

Hopefully I can recollect few incidents and write it down over here. But yes, some of the golden moments have just gone by..

Cheers,
Sandeep

My travel dreams

Well I have loads of dreams with respect to travelling. Infact, if you are thinking, that I am talking about travelling abroad. Nopes, I am talking about, my travel in and around Karnataka.

There are loads of places which I love to visit along with my cousins.

> Yana, Sirsi Marikamba temple, Murudeshwar, Karwar
> Ooty, Kodaikanal, Yercaud,
> Chickmaglur, Kemmangundi, Kudremukh.
> Baba Budangiri, Mulayangiri, Kumaraparvata.
> Coorg,
> Mangalore, Udupi, Malpe
> Kerala, (bottom part - Cochin, Center part- wayanad, thrissur,munnar, Top part - Bekal, Kannor)
> Pondicherry.
> Goa

As of now, I can only dream of going out with my cousins. Not sure when they materialize. By the time they materialize people would have spread out. Lesser time for each other, no holidays. :(

I feel I just had the last best trip before coming over here. It was to Yercaud. Had a blast over a couple of days.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Past two weekends

Last two weekends have been kind of lazy. Last sunday went to Khansama for dinner with Kapil and family and Shreyas. Infact it was a treat from my side for my salary.

The day before, had been to a temple in Little India. It was Gurupurnima on Sunday and hence been to the temple to pray.

The week prior to this it was Shreays' treat. Had been to Malgudi, a restaurant, just opposite to Mustafa. So weekend's going in this fashion. Apart from that, have not travelled a lot on weekends.

Spoke to Sushant, who is currently in Malaysia.

This week, I head to library to drop the borrowed books :)

Cheers,
Sandeep

Books I am reading

Currently I am reading Night Shift from Stephen King. Finished reading From a Buick 8 from the same author. Will start with the Cell by Stephen King shortly. :)

Cheers,
Sandeep

Friends Circulating Library

Of all the things I liked in Subramanyanagar, the best was Venkateshwara Bakery and the next best thing was infact, the store next to it. It was none other than Friends Cirulating Library. I never was a big time reader, until this happened. Infact my mother enrolled my brother as a member of the library. I think the year was 1993-94.

So from that year, I started reading comics, Chacha Choudhry, Tintin and Mandrake, and many more. But I enjoyed reading Famous Five apart from all other books. I did not like Secret Seven that much though. so by the year 1999, when I was supposed to relocate to South of Bangalore, I had read many books of Hardy boys, Nancy drew and many many more..

Infact there were days, when I used to read two books per day, morning- afternoon - hardy boys, afternoon - late evening, Nancy Drew. (During holidays I meant). Loved reading them along side listening to MLTR, (Paint my love).

So finally in 1999, said goodbye to Friend's circulating library and transferred my account membership to my friend Abijit.

But since 1999, I have found it difficult to find a library in South of Bangalore. These days, I get books from Strand book stall / festival or from Avenue road.

Lately I heard, Friends Circulating Library ceases to exist and its given way to a browsing center. I have never been to Subramanyanagar after 1999. Sad to hear this update.

After coming over here, I have found Bugis National Library a metro station away, and have become its member. Its been 3 weeks since I ve been a member, and I ve almost read 4 books by Stephen King.

Wow, I could manage only 1 per month whilst I was in Bangalore, thanks to my travelling and the IDIOT box.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: Yes even after 11 years, I can still remember my account number, It is infact 374 .
Long live the legacy of Friends Ciculating Library

As a child, I was afraid of my teachers :)-

I just recollected about this, a day after Gurupurnima. As a kid, I was afraid of my teachers. There is nothing wrong in admitting. I was extremely afraid.

Taking beatings with a wooden scale, teachers, squeezing our ears, even using bamboo stick, seemed to be very embarassing and even more in front of entire class.

Once, I had forgotten to bring a notebook to the class. We had the concept of classwork and homework, notebooks, one for classroom writing and one for writing exercises at home. I had not brought one of the book. I was so scared, that I will be made to stand out of the class, that I wasted two hours pondering over it and when the class was over,  I can recollect, the book was never needed. What a waste of time.

This might be the reason, I ended up carrying bucket loads of books to school, out of fear. (Might be, I am not sure, I cannot prove it, because I have forgotten about it).

As I approached high school, I can recollect, it became an obsession to carry lesser and lesser books to the class. Infact, we used to show each others' bags just to see whose carried more books. The fear just gradually came down and down as I grew with age.

One more instance I can recollect, I literally forgot to complete my homework on time, and was about to get a signed letter from my parents, saying I was out of town and was not able to complete homework on time. But luckily, I stayed back at home for some more time and completed the same.

I still wonder, why I was so afraid of my teachers. May be it brought discipline in me. But I feel, fear results in lesser self confidence.

And in my case, it might have resulted in losing bucket loads of time. May be I could have read another TinTin comic or a Famous Five book or something else,

And as I grew up, as the fear gradually came down and after which what happened, well.. thats another story.

Cheers,
Sandeep

Walking on the railway tracks in the hot sun :)

Some of the most memorable childhood memories, I have, is, about growing up, in the area called Malleshwaram. It was an awesome area. Loads of good people, loads of places to hang out, lots of options.

As a kid, we used to have summer holidays, infact, we had 2-3 months of holidays in a continous stretch. It was awesome. There we so many things which we got to do, during such holidays. One such thing, which might sound not so good, is walking on the railway tracks during afternoon time.

There are many such occasions, I can recollect, when after having afternoon lunch, sleep was difficult to come by, and, it being holiday time, I was always, wanting to play. So when I got bored of playing cricket, hide and seek, reading books or finishing my summer holiday homeworks, I used to walk along the railway tracks.

Yes, it might sound bizzare, but yes, doing bizzare things, gives me happiness, (not sure about you), like walking along railway tracks, and recollecting about them, writing about them,  may be 15+ years later.

There is a railway line which passes close to Malleshwaram, which then goes to Yeshwantpur railway station and then to Tumkur etc etc.

So when nothing was left to do, me and my friend used to walk along the railway tracks. Dont worry, its not on the railway tracks, it is alongside railway track, at a safe distance from where trains used to go.

It was loads of fun, watching different trains go by.  Meanwhile in between, all the train services were suspended, not sure if I am correct, because there was a conversion of railway line from meter gauge to broad gauge.

So there I was spending almost many afternoons, in the hot sun, after lunch, watching the workers as they laid new tracks.

It was fun, doing these kind of things over holidays. Sometimes, I feel, I am lucky. Even though, I did not have computer, internet or cable TV those days, still we had a great time, doing things, which people only can imagine doing.

One such thing was walking along railway tracks. I am sure, not many people would have grown up doing this.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: Please note, I have always maintained a safe distance from trains and I have never walked on the railway tracks.

On the eve of Guru Purnima

Tomorrow is Guru Purnima. Yes, I am not sure, whether I blogged about it, last year, same time. But this time, I surely want to write something.

One the eve of Guru Purnima I would like to thank all my teachers, who have put me on the right track.

Whatever I am today, its because of all the teachers, who have taught me, who have scolded me, thrashed me, for my wrong doing, who have inspired me. Yes, I would be a goner without you guys.

As I type these words, I can recollect many of my teachers, right from LKG to my engg days. I have had some great teachers during my study days.

And a special thanks going out to my teachers of SJBIT. SJBIT was my last official place of study. After which I have never been to any college for any degree. I have been taught by few people at office, but SJBIT was the last formal one.

SJBIT always occupies a special place, it was close to my house, in an area which was fun to learn. Going to college was such fun.

Also a big thank you to all people who have taught me .NET. CSK, Seth, Salil, Prashanth, Thank you so much guys.

Its because of all these wonderful people, I still have loads of enthusiasm to learn new things and apply them.

Happy Guru Purnima.

Cheers,
Sandeep

PS:: You might be wondering, why, every now and then I write a post thanking my teachers? Its true, whenever, I get something like a hike in salary or get some appreciaton for some good work, or clear a company interview, it always reminds me of my teachers, mentors, because of whom I could do it.

So time and again, I shall keep writing a post thanking my teachers.

First trip to Chickmaglur in 1996

My first trip to Chikmaglur was way back in 1996. I have been to many places before 1996, Hubli, Dharwad as usual, Mumbai, Goa, and some places back in and around Bangalore.

But I cannot recollect any instances of going to Chickmaglur before 1996. But this first trip to Chickmaglur was a memorable one. As memorable as it can get. I dont know how to put it, but it was magical.

I remember having summer holidays at school, during that time, my father along with the colleagues of his office had planned a trip to Chikmaglur, infact Koppa. Infact a relative of one of my father's friend had a estate in Koppa, so we were all invited.

Few collegues of my father along with their kids came along in a rented Matador, yes those days TT was considered to be expensive, since Matador was available and it could seat more people than TT.

Infact I remember catching cold a day before the trip. I was worried, how would I ever manage it. I somehow took some homeopathic medicine and started on the trip. Would you believe or not, my cold just vanished as I left Bangalore and reached out other places.

I still remember, we passed through Kunigal then to Holenarasipura, where the driver of the rented vehicle had his house. We stopped at his place, where he loaded a 25 kilo jowar sack into the back of the vehicle, so we had to keep our luggage in the seating area.

Then we had lunch at Hassan, yes, we proceeded towards Koppa. It was 8 45 pm in the evening when we reached over there. Next day, we proceeded to Shringeri, then in the evening to Agumbe to watch the sunset.

Yes these are my memories of my first trip to Chickmaglur, way back in 1996. Yes, it was as beautiful as it is today. I can write more about the places I visited. But i do not want to. You can get that information anywhere on the internet.

I can also recollect having bath in the pond which used to run across in the backyard of the estate.

I have been to Chickmaglur after this few other times, but never been to the estate, yet again. May be someday, I shall get another invite.

Cheers,
Sandeep